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  • Iinfinitive Vs - Gerundfv

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    zegall
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    There is no rule for determining whether to use a gerund or infinitive with a particular verb. Each verb licenses either a gerund or infinitive complement based on its own rules, and these have little to do with semantics. While linguists have observed some general tendencies over time, like a shift toward more gerund use or gerunds being preferred in backward-looking contexts, these are only statistical tendencies that cannot predict or determine the right form to use for a specific verb. The only sure way is to check actual usage examples for each individual verb.

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    iInfinitive vs.gerundfv

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    There is no rule for determining whether to use a gerund or infinitive with a particular verb. Each verb licenses either a gerund or infinitive complement based on its own rules, and these have little to do with semantics. While linguists have observed some general tendencies over time, like a shift toward more gerund use or gerunds being preferred in backward-looking contexts, these are only statistical tendencies that cannot predict or determine the right form to use for a specific verb. The only sure way is to check actual usage examples for each individual verb.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    8 views1 page

    Iinfinitive Vs - Gerundfv

    Uploaded by

    zegall
    There is no rule for determining whether to use a gerund or infinitive with a particular verb. Each verb licenses either a gerund or infinitive complement based on its own rules, and these have little to do with semantics. While linguists have observed some general tendencies over time, like a shift toward more gerund use or gerunds being preferred in backward-looking contexts, these are only statistical tendencies that cannot predict or determine the right form to use for a specific verb. The only sure way is to check actual usage examples for each individual verb.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 1

    Is there a rule for using gerunds and infinitives instead of memorizing

    the verbs? I mean when to use gerund or infinitive just by looking at


    the sentence.

    There is no such rule. Each verb has its own rules for what sorts of complement clause it
    'licenses', and it has little or nothing to do with semantics.

    This is in fact a question which has had a lot of attention from linguists in the last fifteen or
    twenty years. Some general tendencies have been observed, such as the Great Complement
    Shift, the tendency over the past five or six hundred years for gerund complements to replace
    infinitive complements, or that gerunds tend to be preferred in Backward-looking contexts and
    infinitives in Forward-looking contexts.

    But these are no more than statistical tendencies: they have no predictive value and cannot be
    relied on to determine what form should be used in any particular instance with any particular
    verb. I'm afraid the only sure guide is to consult actual contemporary usage for each verb.

    http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/23999/when-to-use-gerund-or-infinitive/24086

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